Dear T/Tawa/Taco,

Since this week has been the craziest week of your life, I thought I'd take the time to appreciate you a little bit. Though you resented my existence for essentially the first eight-ish years of my life, you've turned out to be a pretty great big sis. Besides the many occasions of sneaking Cookout and (of all things) fried shrimp into movie theaters with me, here's why you're basically awesome.

You've taught me the benefits of having highly social but incredibly nerdy friends

As the children of two pop culture junkies with a soft spot for Star Wars, we quite literally never had a chance at dodging the nerd gene, and honestly, it serves us well. While not everyone can appreciate the nostalgic bliss of Pokemon Go or an extensive discourse on why the technical aspects of human language are so cool, you've shown me that finding people that don't just acknowledge but embrace their inner nerd are the people that make the best company.

You make me feel like a style icon

Though it's super annoying coming home to see my closet completely raided, it secretly makes me burst with pride when I see a picture of you wearing a cute dress of mine or something of the like. I know that you only raid my closet because it's the easiest (and cheapest) way to stock yours, but it makes me at least try to have good personal taste when I'm stuck in a rut of wearing the same four outfits over and over.

Your interior design aesthetic is #goals

You turned a shoebox of a house into the cutest living space Athens has ever seen. I mean, shabby chic consignment furniture and paper lanterns and tea lights hanging from the ceiling? Who actually does that? You do dear sis, and it's awesome.

Your taste in music is also #goals

When I was doing a bus tour around Ireland after Saint Patrick's Day, our tour guide made us play a "game" where we put our music on shuffle and listened to the first five songs that came up, no matter how cringeworthy that song was. And guess what? Because 90 percent of my music is from suggestions you gave me or mixtapes you made dad and then gave to me, I looked like I had really awesome taste in music (which I do, because it's essentially yours). So that's what I call a success story, thanks to you.

You kind of pushed my dance career...

...because I came to a very recent revelation that the majority of my dance-related goals were basically set to beat all of yours...so thanks for that. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

You work harder than any other human being I know

And I work harder because of it. Liam was already a pretty tough act to follow, and you blew him out of the water (no offense Miam, you're still awesome too). I don't think I truly understood what all those hours in lab and countless all-nighters you endured really meant until I listened to your PhD defense last week. I have quite literally never heard someone have such a thorough understanding of any subject, especially one as complex as infectious disease, and the respect you've earned from your colleagues, superiors and mentees is a real testimony to that.

And finally...

Archibald

He's annoying, he's a dope, but I love him and I love how much you love him.

I love you T, and I'll miss you when you go off to save the world and stuff in DC.

Love,

Shorty